Abstract

This essay addresses the links between routine, organised white supremacy and the 'war on terror.ï¿½ Beginning with an image of American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib, viewed in the context of the new museum of apartheid in South Africa, it demonstrates the entangled elements of white supremacy, colonialism, the spectre of global terrorism, and the New Imperialism of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. The essay stresses the importance of comparative work and cross-cultural, transnational exchange in the effort to analyse the reproduction of racist discourse on local, national and global scales. The second part explores the value of using whiteness as a concept to interpret local conflicts exacerbated by the fascist British National Party. It argues that racist violence and physical intimidation accompanies the activities of such groups however hard they try to disguise their underlying ideology. It also demonstrates the significance of gender discourse in Islamophobic propaganda.